Starting a Business: Going Slow

About a year or so ago I started selling greeting cards which I hand make.
My bosses kindly allow me to sell my cards at work (I work at a news agency) free of charge. In a year I have sold maybe a dozen or so cards totaling just over a $100. In conjunction with selling them at work, I also run an online store at Etsy.com. I have so far only made two sales from this online store, hardly enough to pay for the cost of listing my items. I also have a facebook page and business cards.

I want to know what I can do to increase sales. I am well aware that retail isn't great, and in regards to pricing, everyone that I have spoken to has told me my prices are reasonable.


 Here are a few examples :)

It would mean a great deal to me if anybody could take a few moments to have a quick look at my store:
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/TwigsAndDuck
and then post a comment below with some feedback. For example what would stop you from committing to a purchase? What would you like to see more or less of? What information is lacking? etc

Thankyou so much to anyone who takes the time to help me!! It means a huge deal!!

Love Em :D

Indo Holiday 2 - Day 7

Day 7 - Saturday 29th June 2013

Today was our last full day at Club Med Bali, so we just enjoyed ourselves at the beach and made the most of it.
Here are some photos since we didn't do much else today :)

The show tonight was Bollywood themed, we didn't watch the whole thing, it was dragging a bit. So we went to the bar and hung out with Irawan :) We went to the nightclub for about 20 mins but there were no other guest there, just G.O.s so we went to bed :)

Indo Holiday 2 - Day 6

Day 6 - Friday 28th June 2013

Today we decided because it was raining and I was feeling much better we would take a trip to Bali Galleria in Kuta to do some shopping for my family. Unfortunately the shopping center had changed a lot since they were last there and the places they wanted me to go to were no longer there. We still had a nice walk around, bough some food and drinks for our room etc.

After this we went to a new shopping complex along Kuta beach called Beachwalk, it's very modern and there were some really nice shops there. One in particular, Miss Selfridge was my favorite, I could have bought the whole store but the clothes were a bit too pricy so all I could do was dream hehe

We walked around for an hour or two then found ourselves a taxi back to the resort. Unfortunately due to the rain and general traffic in the area it took nearly 2 hours to get back. Ma'arif took a nap when we got into the taxi and by the time he woke up we had only driven around the corner.

We ended up getting back to the resort at about 2 pm. We had lunch at the sit down restaurant as the main buffet had closed.
The resort organized a big game of bingo at the main bar so we joined the couple we had met the night before and played a few rounds, it was very entertaining even if none of us won. :P

Main Bar 

 That evening was Balinese themed night, we had to wear sarongs and white shirts. I bought a $3 sarong at the shops earlier and was going to wear it as a skirt but it was just a bit too short when tied up so I ended up adapting the theme and wearing the sarong as a scarf. :)

The show was Balinese dancers and fire dancers. There was then a interactive display of all the different G.O. nationalities currently at the resort, with samples of food, art and games from each nation.
Australia didn't have much to offer more than a slice of bread and Vegimite...*Sigh*

Balinese Dancers :)

The traditional dance performance was stunning, the costumes were so vibrant that you would think you had never seen colour before then, the fire dancers were very talented also!

We didn't stay out too late tonight, I was feeling pretty tired, so off to bed we went.

Indo Holiday 2 - Day 5

Day 5 - Thursday 27th June 2013

I had a horrible night, fever, shaking, sweats, waking up over and over. Ma'arif was an angel taking care of me. In the morning before breakfast we headed straight for the infirmary, the nurse told me what I already knew and called in the doctor to bring me antibiotics.

We had to wait an hour for the doctor so we had breakfast and took it easy. It was raining this morning which was a shame, but I guess it was a good day since I wasn't going to be doing too much.

The doctor arrived at 10am, he was a very funny, friendly man, he had also been to Perth many times and loved it very much he told me.
He agreed with me that I had Tonsillitis and asked me if I wanted pills or an injection of Antibiotics, he said the injection would work faster so I chose this...after about 10 mins laying on the bed watching him mix up 3  cocktails of different solutions I had a plug stuck in my arm and all 3 solutions injected into me. *uurrghh*

I felt a little nauseous and pain but it passed fairly quickly, I was also prescribed 2 different pills one which I had to take 5 times a day for 5 days!

By that afternoon I was feeling much much better! So we spent the day at the beach in our little dome again taking in the view and trying to stay out of the rain :)

Once the rain cleared up and I was feeling a lot better, we went for a long stroll down the beach past a few of the neighboring resorts, the beaches were very pretty.

 As we were walking I spotted this little guy stranded on the beach...

 

So I rescued him and returned him to the water, he was still alive :)

We got ready for dinner, the theme tonight was Club Med shirts and white pants. Earlier today we bought new shirts to wear for this evening :) At dinner time we were sat with a lovely couple who also live in Perth, they were there with their teenage daughter. We spent the night chatting away with them until it was time to watch the show. The performance tonight was put on by the Kids Club, their daughter was playing the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. It was a great show and some of the little toddlers looked sooo adorable in their little costumes!
Afterwards there was a show for the adults, a series of impersonations of famous songs and singers. It was very well done and highly entertaining!

Afterwards we headed to the nightclub for a little while then off to bed :)

Ma'arif, Me and Irawan all wearing our 88/45 shirts!

Indo Holiday 2 - Day 3 & 4

Day 3 - Tuesdays 25th June 2013

Today we spent time just enjoying everything on offer at Club Med Bali, since we slept for the 1st day and were out on the 2nd day it was great to finally just settle in.
We started our morning with a BIG breakfast, then I wanted to check out the Archery, so we headed down to the sports center and had a few rounds, we met the G.O. for Archery and became great friends, his name is Gede and he's from Bali.

While Ma'arif and Gede were jibbering on in Indonesian I was having fun shooting bulls-eyes!

It was quite a hot day so afterwards, we headed to the main bar for some cocktails and relaxation before lunch.

RnR

Cheers!

And of course the view wasn't bad either!

After lunch we took a long dip in the pool, the water was beautiful! There was a young boy alone in the pool with a water gun who found great amusement in endlessly spraying us with water haha

The afternoon was spent laying at the beach and sipping more and more cocktails :D

The dress code for this evening was elegant, we made a reservation for the restaurant, but ended up missing our booking which was fine because we still got dressed up and made our way to the buffet :D

We made the most of the night after enjoying the evening entertainment and dancing, by going to the on site nightclub, which is simply the open air restaurant transformed into a dance floor with dj and pop up bar. We met up with Gede, and also our new bar friend Irawan and the water sports G.O. Aang.

It was such a great night, we stayed till the end, meaning we didn't get back to our room till about 2 am haha
Unfortunately I paid for it the next day!

Day 4 - Wednesday 26th June 2013

I woke up with a very very sore throat, unable to swallow, and shaking all over from a very bad fever.
It was quite scary, I took some Neurofen which helped with the fever enough that I could make it to breakfast. But afterwards I went back to the room and slept for a few hours, I wasn't feeling well enough to leave the room and was still getting shakes from the fever so I introduced Ma'arif to Yahtzee on my Ipod and we played for a while till it was lunch time. I took some more Neurofen and had some lunch.

After that I wanted to get some fresh air so we grabbed ourselves a dome on the beach and just took it easy for the afternoon. As I was having trouble swallowing everything even water, Ma'arif ordered me a glass of Pocari Sweat, its basically an isotonic sports drink but it was so soothing, so that's all I drank for about 2 days.

I made it to dinner but only just, there was supposed to be a pool party that evening but I just wasn't up to it so unfortunately we missed out. On the way to dinner I bumped into a G.O. that I met in Phuket, at Christmas time, her name is Octavanie and she's from Jakarta, we were going to meet up while I was in Jakarta but fortunately she was working in ClubMed Bali while I was there so we got to see each other there instead :D

Indo Holiday 2 - Day Two

Our day began nice and early at 7am! Keen for some Club Med style buffet breakfast we filled ourselves up with eggs and bacon and toast and fruit and potato gems till we couldn't eat any more!

The plan for today was 1) get Ma'arif a haircut 2) exchange money and 3) take a long drive up to Ubud with friends.

We made our way to Kuta at about 10am, our taxi driver dropped us off on some random street and we walked and walked and walked, checking every money changer we saw for the best rate. After nearly resigning to a 9150Rp/$1 exchange rate, we spotted a sign for 9799Rp/$1, the teller typed in 9790 into the calculator which I questioned, after he checked the sign to confirm the number he offered me a rate of 9998 if I exchanged $400, I couldn't pass up the deal so I agreed, he didn't have any small denominations and neither did I so he ended up giving me the full 4mill Rupiah making the rate 10000Rp/$1!! Needless to say I was pretty stoked!

We kept walking and found a beauty salon which offered hair cuts. I had to have a bit of a chuckle when a very effeminate man named Lady began to start work on my boyfriend's hair. My boyfriend has a mild, irrational fear of gay hairdressers hahaha

Once his "traumatic" experience was over we walked around the corner to meet up with our friends. Their driver friend took us all for a very beautiful drive up to Ubud so that we could take Tennille and her boyfiend Didik to their new accommodation, a bungalow in the middle of a rice field. The location was beautiful but getting there was a near disaster! The road up to the bungalow wasn't signed as bike only access so we drove our merry way up and up and up and stop...

We ended up stuck on the middle of a tiny dirt road with mud and channels of water hugging both sides..! A little bit of faith and a lot of perseverance later we were on our way back down the hill, minus Tennille and Didik.

We were both hungry so we went to a nice open restaurant overlooking a rice field for lunch, it was very yummy! But the rats running along the roof above our heads was a bit off-putting :S

After lunch we wanted to go see the famous rice terraces, so off we drove the 30 min drive up the mountain again. About two minutes from getting there it started raining...and raining and raining and raining!
This is the view we ended up with...

 Not much of a view huh...so we turned around and drove the two hours back to the resort.

The night went much better than the day, we had a nice dinner and I fell in love with Coconut Liqueur, the evening entertainment was a variation on Beetle Juice, with some very risque costumes on the women and adult themed dance moves at various points of the show...it was very entertaining as always though! Followed up with a wonderful white party, with bubbles and blue fairy lights and costumes and everyone decked out in white.

After that we headed over to the bar and danced the night away to the beautiful tones of Club Med Euro-Pop ;P 

Then off to bed at midnight :D

Indo Holiday 2 - Day One

So I'm back...back in Indonesia, this time I'm here for 29 days! I will be spending one week in Club Med Bali, and three weeks in Jakarta with my lovely boyfriend :D

I arrived on the 23rd of June, at 11:00am at Denpasar Airport, I made it very quickly though the airport with no hassles, I was met by my driver who would take my partner and I to the resort. The driver and I walked to the domestic arrivals waiting area to collect Ma'arif, who was supposed to arrive at 11:30am. I was waiting and waiting and waiting, and getting worried he wasn't going to turn up, but lucky for both of us he eventually appeared.

We were greeted at the resort by the Chief de Village, JB, a charismatic, tall, blonde, Belgium man. After the usual tea and cold towel refreshments we were guided to our room. I was getting worried that I may be walking back to Australia at the distance we were having to walk, 5km and 2 flights of stairs later we were in our room...minus our bags...there was a mix up with the bags but we got ours eventually :D

As I had only had about 3 hours sleep since 7am on Saturday morning I was feeling pretty tired, so we both had a much needed granny nap before dinner.

At 6pm my uni friend and her Indonesian boyfriend dropped by the resort for dinner as they are also staying in Bali but arrived a week earlier. We sipped cocktails and ate till we were balloons, chatted and waited for the evening entertainment, cabaret. The show had us in fits of laughter, as male members of the audience were selected to participate in a highly entertaining drag performance. An bald, 60 something Chinese man provided the most entertainment with his overly enthusiastic contribution!

Following the show, we all relaxed, chatted and sipped more cocktails, took a stroll of the grounds and watched a flying trapeze show put on by the circus school and a hand full of talented guests.

Then it was off to bed for us at 11:30pm.

I'm still here!

Hello Everyone!

I'm still alive and kicking :D!! I want to get back into blogging again.

The reason I stopped for so long....lack of inspiration.

What I've done since I last blogged?

I visited Thailand, made some new friends, finished a year at uni and started a new one, and generally trying to figure out what I want to do with my life after I finish this last year at uni.

This last point is the most important.

I've come to realise that my course of study at university, even though it has a very promising title, is before its time. Nobody knows what I'm qualified for, and to be honest, I'm starting to question that myself. I am lucky in the fact that I also have a second major to back me up if all else fails.

So what is a Bachelor of Arts in Sustainable Development??

Basically I am an expert in everything and specialise in nothing.

• Urban Development
• Town Planning
• Climate Change
• Economics
• Environmental Science
• Field Work
• Report Writing
• Governance
• Systems Thinking
• Ethics
• Transport
• Community Development
• Sustainability Consulting

But if I were to walk up to an employer and say "I would like to work for you, I have a BA in Sustainable Development" I will get a response, almost without fail; "Is that like Environmental Science?" to which I will reply "No, but I can do so  much more than that" to which I will then get "Oh sorry, we only want Environmental Scientists". BAM! Another rejection, for the simple fact that nobody knows what 'Sustainable Development' is!

I have had employers describe to me that they are looking for Environmental Scientists, Economists, Town Planners, and consultants, and they want them to all work together to come up with a solution....well I can offer you all of those, with the skills to put them all together. But for the simple fact that my Degree does not have the title of 'Scientist' it is assumed I am under qualified.

This blog is not a rant complaining about employers, it's not their fault that my qualification has no real time tested reputation. I would like this blog to be a proposal to which I would like responses.

How do you sell yourself when nobody understands what you can do?

Please comment below, I want to know if anyone else has this problem with their university qualification.

Cheers

EM